Non-sweating furniture-support.



A. P. JONES. uon-swm'rme FURNITURE SUPPORT.- APPLIOATION FILED MAR. 1,1912.

1,069,141. Patented Aug.5, 1913.

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UNITED STATES PATEN OFFICE.

ALFRED P. JONES, OF MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA.

NON-SWEATING FURNITURE-SUPPORT.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, ALFRED P. JONES, acitizen of the United States, residing at Minneapolis, in the county ofHennepin and State of Minnesota, have invented certain new and usefulImprovements in l on- Sweating Furnituresupports, of which the followingis a specification.

My invention relates to a non-sweating furniture support, having in viewparticularly to provide a support for the purpose which may be appliedto the legs of tables, beds, dressers and other articles of furniture,either over. the casters or directly to the end of the legs without anyintervening caster, so that said articles of furniture may be moved overpolished floors without marring the same, or may remain in one positionfor a long period of time on such floors or upon table tops or otherarticles of furniture in a warehouse without sweating and consequentlywithout leaving any mark or stain.

In carrying out my invention I provide a form, of wood or metal asdesired, for receiving the caster or for direct application to thefurniture legs and cover the bottom of the form with a facing of someheavy woven fabric, such as belting, which has been filled with a wax,such as para-ffln or beeswax, previously emulsified in a cutting oil,preferably crude petroleum or low grade kerosene. This filling gives asurface to the covering which cannot mar the finest finish, and beingabsolutely non-absorbent of water, will prevent any moisture collectingbetween the pad and the surface upon which it rests. This is commonlycalled sweating and causes injury to the varnish which will leave apermanent mark. Leather, felt and rubber, frequently used for thispurpose, and also untreated fabrics generally, have this fault, whichthe covering of my inven- 'tion successfully overcomes.

Other objects and advantages of my invention will appear in connectionwith the detailed description thereof and are particularly pointed outin the claim.

In the drawings, illustrating the application of my invention in oneform, Figure 1 is a plan view of a caster support embodying theprinciples of my invention. Fig. 2 is a side elevation of a fillingblock for such a support. Fig. 3 is a partial section across the castersupport showing the manner of securing the facing thereto. Fig. 4: is atop plan view of an attachment to be used in Specification of LettersPatent.

Application filed March 1, 1912.

Serial No.'680,805.

connection with the caster support for ap plying the same directly tothe furniture legs without the use of casters. Fig. 5 illustrates theend of a bed post or furniture leg having the caster support and saidattachment applied thereto, part of the elements shown being broken awayand shown in section.

A form 10 of circular outline has a' circular cavity 11 centrallypositioned therein, a peripheral flange 12 adjacent the bottom, saidflange extending in a downward curve 13 to a flat-faced supportingmember 14. Over the supporting member 1 1 I place a disk of fabric 15,said fabric being secured in position by means of a ferrule 16 which hasa lip 17 engaging below the flange 12 and which is formed in above saidflange at 18 in a well known way thereby permanently securing the pad 15to the form 10.

In preparing the fabric of which the covering 15 is formed I use beeswaxor paraflin wax for filling, and in order to get the wax to permeateevery part of the fabric so as to effectively seal the same against thepassage of moisture, I first emulsify the wax in crude petroleum or alight grade of kerosene oil. The emulsion is warmed somewhat, and whilein its warm condition the fabric is allowed to soak therein for severalhours. After removal the surplus oil quickly evaporates away leaving thewax filling every portion of the fabric and even extending into the yarnof the fabric and about the fibers of which the yarn is composed. I havefound in practice that an ex Patented Aug. 5, 191a.

cellent fabric for the purpose is the heavy' twill duck woven in severalplies which is used for belting. This is a cotton fabric and receivesthe wax filling very well, and at the same time is so strong as toundergo the wear. incident to its use for an indefinite period of time.Of course, other forms of fabric may be advantageously employed and fallwithin the scope of my invention, so long as the same has been properlyfilled with wax in the manner herein indicated.

In some instances in preparing a filling I combine the parafiin andbeeswax, and I have found mostexcellent results to follow the use of thecomposition in which the relative proportions of beeswax and paraffinwere one part of beeswax and four parts of paraffin. A smaller amount ofwax may be used by substituting for a part of the wax a combination oflinseed oil, mutton tallow and rosin. In either case the preparation andapplication of the filling is done in the same way, that is, byemulsifying the wax or the substitute for the wax in crude oil andsoaking the fabric in this emulsion while hot, then allowing the fabricto dry. The substitute above noted will fill the pores of the fabricfairly well, so as to provide a surface practically impervious tomoisture, but is not as satisfactory as the wax above enumerated andwill not permit an article to be moved with quite the same degree offreedom.

here casters are used in the piece of furniture, a plain caster support,such as shown in Fig. 3, is employed, the caster wheel fitting in thecavity 11. In use, the bed 01' table or other piece of furniture willhave one of the caster supports applied over each caster after which thearticle may be pushed over a polished floor without marring the same,and will leave no spots on the surface from sweating in case a piece offurniture be left in one position for a considerable period of time, orif it desired to stack furniture, one piece on top of another, in awarehouse the caster supports are placed between the casters and thesurface of the supporting piece of furniture with the result that nosweating and staining will take place and no marring of the supportingtop however highly polished and fin ished it may be. In many instancesit may be desirable to use the caster support where no casters areapplied to the piece of furniture, in which case I employ the membershown in Fig. t comprising a top plate 20 havin engaging lugs or lips 21struck out from the substance of the plate 20 so as to be positionedwithin the standard of a piece of furniture, as clearly indicated inFig. 5. To the plate'2O is secured by means of screws 22 a form 23 ofexactly the proper size and shape to fill the cavity 11 in the form 10.\Vhen the plate 20 is positioned upon the caster support 10 with themember 23 in the ravity 11 the lugs or uprights 21 may be positionedwithin the standard 2% of the piece of furniture, as indicated in Fig.5, and the support will thereby be connected to move with the piece offurniture exactly as would be the case if casters were employed. It willbe obvious that my device may be cheaply constructed and that itsadaptability to use either as a caster support or independent of anycasters makes it extremely practicable. The position of the lugs 21 willbe varied in relation to different types of furniture so as to fallfarther from or nearer to the center of the plate 20. If desired theymay be punched. up directly from the center, in which case they will beadapted to enter a relatively small bore in the end of the furnitureleg.

I claim:

A. furniture support comprising a wood form having means adapting thesame to be connected to the end of a furniture leg, said form beingprovided with a flat extended bearing surface, and asheet of thickfabric covering and held in close contact with said bearing surface, allparts of said fabric being filled with wax.

in testimony whereof I affix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

ALFRED P. JONES.

Witnesses F. A. lVHrrELEY, H. A. BOWMAN.

Copies of this patent may be obtained. for five cents each, byaddressing the Commissioner of Patents,

Washington, D. G.

